Successful loan officers know that one easy way to increase their client base is through using debt elimination leads. They are successful because they spend the majority of their valuable time presenting their loan products to interested prospective clients who then decide to purchase from them. The key to making loan debt consolidation leads work in your favor is to ensure that you are purchasing high-quality leads. To do otherwise is to waste much time and money, so it pays to look at several factors that make a lead worth buying.

First, you should only buy leads from a company that sells leads one time. Unscrupulous lead sellers wring more money out of their leads by selling them to more than one customer. What this means is that even if the lead is highly qualified in terms of what you have to sell, this person is being pounced on by several salespeople. All of them are trying to make a sale, and it results in many potential new clients deciding not to go with any of the salespeople whom they perceive as “pestering” them. Leads that are unique to you alone, on the other hand, are excellent because they allow you the time you need to understand your new client’s needs, and then you can meet them capably by offering them appropriate loan products. This improves your closing rate dramatically.

Any leads you wish to purchase should have been carefully screened by the lead generating company for several indicators that will improve your odds of making a sale. One is that they have checked and can guarantee that each of the debt management leads have a high amount of unsecured debt, most often found with credit card use. This type of debt is dangerous to carry because of credit card companies’ ability to raise minimum payments without warming, and a new client with lots of unsecured debt will be very interested in your solutions to his or her debt issues. Leads should also be screened to verify that all contact information is accurate. This is a basic feature that you might assume could be taken for granted, but unfortunately some companies that generate mortgage leads are not thorough in this regard. Inaccurate telephone numbers and e-mail addresses can be impossible to correct with call-screening and spam blockers that are available to the public, so you will want to see if anyone from whom you wish to purchase leads will provide you with a guarantee as to their accuracy. If not, you then know you should take your business elsewhere.

A few specific questions answered in advance of a purchase from a lead generation company can save you a lot of wasted money, so be sure to ask.

“Marketing.” Definition:  Selling to defined audience.  By marketing to the correct customer and prospect base, your lead generation marketing will become more responsive: your phone will ring more frequently and at less cost per call.

Without the precision of marketing to the correct target group – those people or firms who are ready to buy – your lead generation campaign is wasting money and time. Your money, and your time.

In the first article of this series we reviewed seven lead generation mistakes to overcome.  Here you can learn how to increase your lead generation effectiveness and enjoy the rewards of a better customer acquisition strategy by implementing a more focused direct marketing plan.

What happened with your old lead generation and customer acquisition strategy?  It stopped being as effective as it was years ago.  Customers cost more to acquire… and maintain.  Clients jump ship every couple of years, and yours did, too.  So?

Here’s how you can change all that:

1. Current customer analysis.
Figure out who your current customers are.  Dig through your files for commonalities: is it location?  Income level?  Value of home?  Is net worth the driver?  Neighborhood?  Business type?  Circle of friends?  Write all these market factors down on a sheet of paper.  

Hey… if I do this for you – figure out who your customers are, and write it down on a sheet of paper I call it marketing research and charge you two grand.  You can do this for free, and call it whatever you like — it’s your sheet of paper.

2. Figure out where your customers hang out. Then hang out there, too.
What restaurants do your customers eat in?  What mailing lists are your customers on.  What newspapers or magazines do they read?  Do they watch on TV, and what do they watch?  What circle of friends do they go out with?  What charities do they donate to?  What associations do they belong to?  What gym do they work out at?  As you start answering these questions, your lead generation program is now starting to shape-up.  Next, go on – hang out there yourself.  Read those publications.  Go to those movies.  Visit those strip clubs, I mean strip malls.  And be your client.

Remember, when fishing, you go where the fish are.  When looking for clients and customers, go where your clients and customers go.  

3.    Learn what your customers own.
Do they all drive Chevys?  Do they all own boats?   Airplanes.  Tractors?  Have houses in the hills?  Write all this down, too.  It’s part of your lead generation and customer acquisition marketing research. (Remember, you were going to send me two grand if I did this for you?  So now, just send me, oh, three hundred.  Just kidding.  Make it $250.)  This is part of your primary lead generation matrix: a lead generation equation you’re developing into a quite defined formula.

4. Figure out exactly what most of your clients have in common?
If you could clone a few clients, what are the common characteristics they’d all have?  Because that’s exactly what I’d start looking for in new clients: the same demographics of clients currently in my own customer database. 

Section out the target of people who have those same commonalities as your current clients, and advertise or send direct mail to them.  

An example.  Suppose you find out that every one of your clients reads the same 3 magazines.  Those magazines would be good places to take out an ad schedule, wouldn’t they?  

How about if 4 out of 5 of your clients had offices in the same neighborhood.  I’d pick a lead generation campaign with a good direct mail strategy base, and mail regularly to that neighborhood.

If all your customers own dogs, your lead generation campaign should look for dog owners to market to.

If they all eat at the same restaurant, I’d start eating there, too.  If it’s an upscale restaurant, invite me! I’m not too busy and I enjoy nice great food!  Just kidding.  My wife hates it when I go out without her.  I hate it too – she goes shopping.

Hey, that restaurant website might be a good place to effect a lead generation targeted ad campaign; or sponsor the restaurant coat check room for a few nights.  Or leave a few of your business cards at the coat check.  A small and tasteful sign  there would be helpful, too. 

Of course if your clients eat at Denny’s… then, yeee-ha: time to get some new clients there, Jethro.  Sorry. If it wasn’t for bad taste, I wouldn’t have any jokes to tell. 

Back at the nice restaurant, you could always test sponsoring the coat check room, or sponsoring desserts for an evening.  Or if you’re in the city – sponsor parking.  Lead generation doesn’t have to be traditional.

5. Start a mailing list of your customers.
Analyze your customer database, and find more of the same type of person.  Then:

6. Buy several mailing lists that match the demographics of your own house list.
Test each.  Small tests aren’t expensive.  Ramp up when a test is profitable.

7.  Create media awareness.
As a traditional direct marketer, I don’t believe in unfocused mass advertising. Those methods only work in very select circumstances: huge clients with wide markets and big budgets. 

Some lead generation campaigns in local, traditional media such as direct mail, newspapers, magazines and local TV work well to raise the level of awareness of your firm in your own back-yard.  This kind of PR will also increase phone calls to your firm.  You remember who likes to shop in their own back yard?  Everyone.

Create the right message, the right image, and present it consistently in the right media, and presto — an effective lead generation strategy. People will get to know you.  Then do you know what happens?  The phone rings.

8. Create trust.
You can’t build an effective lead generation strategy without the help of others. It’s low in cost to build up your network of referrals and referral sources, and trust plays a big factor here. 

Start your referral network by referring customers to others.  Don’t worry, it starts out slow, but the business will come back to you—in spades. 

9. Build trust by creating a paper trail of nice letters.
To build trust exponentially kindly remember that every referral – whether you give one or receive one, needs to be followed up by a WRITTEN piece of correspondence. 

Use the power and longevity of direct marketing and direct mail when thanking someone for giving you the referral.  Have a referral letter on hand, personalize it and send it every time that you refer a potential client to your colleague.  And a “Thank you for your trust” letter whenever you receive a referral. 

Yes, you need an actual letter – a written piece of correspondence.  No, a call is not the same.  Sure you can call them, BUT… you still need to write something down and send it.

In the next and final artice in this 3 part series, we’ll look at 12 more lead generation strategies.  Stay tuned.

When it comes to Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), it’s important to always put into mind that you need leads or contacts of people who are all about starting their own home-based endeavor! If you run your own MLM website, you may very well be on the way to generating your own leads, with the help of your gathering information of the visitors in your website. However, if your website is not getting enough hits or sufficient traffic to solicit information from potential affiliates, your MLM business is likely not taking flight the way it is meant to.

You may have very well considered purchasing leads from various websites that offer you their collection of very responsive leads. While some websites may be telling you the truth, there is greater benefit in your taking the time out to generate your own leads. It doesn’t have to be really hard once you’ve made up your mind to do it.

How useful is a lead if it isn’t as hot as it promises to be?

With many of these websites selling leads that promise to be hot that is, responsive and useful to your business, many people obviously had previous access to this information already. Too many hands in the same golden basket of hot leads will render these leads colder with every new customer. Moreover, these websites can very well give you leads that will not yield much results, especially if you’re getting the cheaper of whatever leads options you’ve been offered in their website. Their more expensive leads, however, may not necessarily promise the yield and utility implied by their price.

How are you sure they’re all interested?

Leads-selling websites provide you leads that are mostly general interest, meaning that these people may not be the very market you’re hoping to target. By generating your own leads through writing your own advertisements and putting them up, you’re pretty sure that you’re really targeting the people who take interest in the business you wish to sell. Generating your own leads assures you that the leads you are getting are in fact, of quality and highly relevant to your goals.

How do you make sure your business is on the roll?

Generating your own leads also gives you one inherent advantage you get your leads on the real-time. While carrying on the subject of your business, personally generated leads will get in touch with you informing you of their desire to have you or your affiliates get in touch with them. As is implied by the previous statement, you are in effect getting more control over your MLM endeavor. Why is this? Because instead of you waiting on general, unresponsive, and useless leads provided you by your leads provider, you instead have your leads getting in touch with you and asking when you can get in touch with them!

What sort of information do you need?

Generating your own leads means asking the questions you want asked and need asked. This means having great control over the leads you can and should pursue. Once you hand out your surveys to your prospects, you can begin eliminating those leads that do not interest you, and pursuing those that do. This sort of customization of needs is not possible with your lead packages, and is best taken advantage of by generating your own leads.

How much are you spending?

By making smart decisions about where to put in your advertisements and what your advertisements say, in the long run, you end up saving a lot on costs. With leads providers or whatever middle-man company that offers you their leads services, you run the risk of having a lot of your income eaten up by commissions, service costs, and all other costs slapped on the leads service by your provider.

In effect, generating your own leads means spending your money on generating leads that will yield real profit. These are the expenditures you should be making as an MLM entrepreneur on the verge of hitting it big!

How do you assure getting your foot down on your business?

Your business is highly reliant on hot leads. Your leads provider provides you these life-sustaining leads at a price. The moment your cash inflow stops flowing into your leads provider, the leads that they provide will stop coming into your business. That’s right! At the end of the day, you’re not completely in control of your own business. Generating your own leads helps you avoid this scenario of dependency on another business to run your own.

The best low cost lead generation system is to harvest the leads yourself. The most successful marketers conduct their own lead generation programs through their websites. However, to succeed in this automated lead generation, there are 3 common mistakes to avoid. Understand that you have 7 short seconds to convert your visitors into sales leads by inducing them to subscribe to your newsletter at the opt-in page. The 3 common mistakes that internet marketers make that kill their sales lead generation potential are as follows:

No. 1 : No Clear Objective

Be clear whether you want your visitors to purchase a product or join your mailing list. Be specific and to the point. If email lead generation is your objective, consider providing an incentive, such as a free ebook, which they can receive immediately upon subscribing. Most people who surf on the web are looking for free information, and if you can tickle their senses, they are willing to part with their email addresses and grab what you have to offer. With the captured email addresses, you can stay in contact with your subscribers through auto responders and build on your email marketing. You will need a web-based email marketing services such as GetResponse or Aweber to do this.

No. 2 : Sub-Standard Navigation

Business lead generation websites need effective navigation system to compel more visitors to sign up. A good navigation system will determine the length of stay of your visitors and the quality of conversions. For a visitor to gain access to relevant information on your website, such as products and services which is the reason why you set up a website in the first place, your navigation system has to be well organized. Links to products and services should be below the company information at the top of the menu bar on the right side of your page. When there are sub-menu pages, their links should be collapsible, to save space and to make it look neat. All links should include relevant keywords and describe what they are. Below that, you can place articles, your satisfied customers’ comments and praises. Blogs, newsletters, photos and contact information should occupy a more prominent space below the main menu. I find that placing the menu bar on the right to be more effective than on the left because we read from left to right, and usually where the eyeball movement ends, buying impulse takes over.

No. 3 : Missing Emotional Content

Emotion is an important element in a person’s buying decisions when you conduct lead generation programs. Emotion moves a person to take action, and that includes purchasing a product from a website. If you look at advertisement billboards along the highways, the copywriting is so compelling that it makes you think. But unlike highway billboards that is visible to you every time you drive by, a visitor only has 7 seconds to be moved emotionally and will probably not visit your website again. The first paragraph of your website should trigger your visitors’ curiosity and make them want to know more. Identify who your target leads are and understand what they are looking for. If you are selling fat reduction products for women above 40, than your copywriting should be targeted towards their needs, socio-economic level, problems, interests, etc. The needs of obese women above 40 and obese teenagers are entirely different. If you are specific towards their needs, they will stay longer because it is very easy to leave with a click of a mouse. Before and after photos of women above forty who have found success in weight reduction is an effective emotional tool to make them decide. Videos are even more effective and I highly recommend that you have that too. Photos and videos are like boosters that induce a lead to make a buying decision. How many times have you purchased a product because you were moved by the advertisement or commercial on TV?

In conclusion, low cost lead generation programs such as this is very effective for your campaign if you avoid the 3 common mistakes. Just remember that you need to have a clear objective of your campaign, a good navigation with the menu and links in the right places, and a compelling copywriting that triggers your visitors’ buying impulse.

In the past, most realtor leads were acquired mostly through referrals. However, with the advent of real estate internet marketing, many realtor leads are acquisitioned online. With lead generation systems—lead-selling Web 2.0 sites that offer interested realtors bundled leads in their market—many realtors now have to come to terms with new methods of attracting clients. There are many pros and cons to this new marketing landscape, but a successful realtor will take advantage of any opportunity afforded him.

Lead sellers and lead generation systems are paving the way for a new environment in the real estate marketing business. The successful companies have found their slice of the internet share through successful advertisement and search engine priority. While some realtors have found unqualified buyers through the more disreputable sites, others have wholly integrated internet referrals into their marketing strategies.

If you are uncomfortable with using these sites, then it might be in your best interest to cull your own contacts by maintaining your own websites. A useful way to do this is keep a current blog. This personalizes your business and familiarizes interested contacts with your methods and areas of expertise. A blog can represent your genuine passion and makes a client more comfortable when they are seeking your professional skills. Make sure your website attracts people on a personal level by being specific to their needs.

However, if you are willing and determined to weed through referrals from potentially unqualified customers, then internet referrals may be your next untapped resource. After all, not every curious customer is going to be an ideal buyer, whether you’ve found them through an internet referral system or just running them through an open house. The trick is to be a proactive realtor. Don’t be discouraged by the bad referrals and be certain to take full advantage of the good ones.

If you keep these methods in mind, then you will have the opportunities to diversify your business by drawing in contacts from a variety of sources. It is important to be on the cutting edge of your business in order to take full advantage of the client base. It makes your business more attractive by providing the client with an easy method to locate you and take advantage of your skills.

The key to success with life insurance sales leads that are generated by a 3rd party lead company is to devise a plan of action. Most agents who use leads fail to handle them effectively enough to be profitable. Here are ten steps for an insurance agent to follow to make a profit with sales leads.

1. Select the type of life insurance sales leads you want. For instance, there are insurance sales leads that are generated by mail, fax, internet websites, etc. Each lead type has its advantages and disadvantages. Also, decide whether you want to work with exclusive life insurance sales leads, or shared sales leads.

2. Determine the quantity of leads you can afford to purchase over a 60-90 day period before you receive any commissions from your initial sales. Typically, underwriting, approving, and getting paid on a life insurance policy will take at least 60-90 days. Therefore, you will need to fund your lead purchases over this period of time before you have commissions to re-invest in leads from profits instead of your pockets.

3. Select a lead company with a reputation for generating responsive leads. Ideally, you should get references from an agent(s) who has experience working the leads generated by the company you’re considering. If references are not available, ask the lead company for several complimentary leads for you to experience first-hand how responsive they are,

4. Always follow-up with your leads quickly after receiving them, preferably within 1-2 hours. Sales leads become stale if they aren’t contacted immediately.

5. Use a follow-up phone script that quickly engages the sales lead in a professional yet friendly manner. Sales leads do not know who you are, and are quick to judge you by how you handle yourself in the first 15-20 seconds on the phone.

6. Close your lead effectively in a manner that allows the lead to decide to do business with you. Sales leads want you to advise them on what options they have, but they want to make the final purchase decision.

7. Have a step-by-step plan of action for your lead to follow to proceed once they have made a decision to purchase one of your recommendations. Your prospective policyholder should always be aware of the next step in the process.

8. Monitor the underwriting of the case to make sure it proceeds without problems or delays. Be sure to update your prospective policyholder often on the progress of underwriting their policy.

9. Deliver approved policies and complete all delivery requirements quickly so that you are paid. Be sure to maintain records of commission income vs. lead expense to track your profitability.

10. Always re-invest a portion of your commissions in additional life insurance sales leads to continue the selling cycle. Your program should be self-sustaining after the initial 60-90 days of selling to your leads.

Attempting to sell leads without a plan almost always results in frustration and wasted money on leads. However, these ten steps can provide a working outline for any insurance agent wanting to profit from selling life insurance sales leads

12 More Awesome Tips on Lead Generation Systems and Direct Marketing Strategies.

1.  Pick up the phone and call.
Speaking about the phone, just call current customers and say thanks for your business.  You’d be surprised at what this does for your lead generation program.  You don’t need to sell anything, just thank customers and ask if you can help with anything or provide any information they may have questions about.  For best results, offer

In the insurance industry lead generation is often just a FREE policy review away.  In both the financial community and the insurance industry, a free portfolio or policy review is one of my favorite offers.  And quotes are always the first line item preceding a sale.

2.  Go back to school.
School events can help even if you don’t have kids.
For financial lead generation programs, or insurance lead generation strategies, don’t forget to help out with school programs: build credibility and trust when you take out ads in the yearbook, play programs, school events.  People naturally trust firms who work with kids, and their kid’s schools.  School ads are always inexpensive and are generally tightly focused to a neighborhood, which you’ve probably targeted as your own local market.  And you remember who likes to shop in their own back yard?  Yea, I thought so.  Everyone.

3. If your market is geographically tight, get active in the local scene. Go to area meetings and join community associations.  Join the township board, or get on some committees.  Go to business events.  People trust people they can look in the eye and they can do that at local events.   And the business goes to people with… a high degree of visibility and accessibility.  Applause.  OK you guys with high visibility and accessibility – step forward.  Thanks.

4.  Stop pushing products. Most businesses are based on a relationship, lead generation strategies are the beginning of this relationship.  Start prompting people to call you with questions, for answers or for additional information.  Become the informational resource. 

Once they’re on the phone with you, it’s all you baby, it’s all you.  Unleash that magnetic personality.  You do have a magnetic personality, don’t you?  Sigh…  me neither.  Oh well… put them on your mailing list and mail to them all the time, like I do.  You do have a mailing list, don’t you?

5. Design your Lead Generation Program with the correct objectives.
The best lead generation programs can do is generate warm phone calls – then it’s all up to you to create a relationship (aka create a client) when the phone rings.  So…

6. Make the phone ring
Create an ad, a press release or send a direct mail piece, post card or letter.  Continuous active marketing is crucial to new business.

7.  Make FREE Offers.
The best way to generate phone calls with these lead generation printed pieces is to Offer Free Booklets of helpful information. 

The titles drive the response – the better the title, the greater the response.  Simple as that. 

Better yet, in the center of your letter or post card, show a punchy bulleted list of compelling booklet titles readers can get FREE, if they just call now!  Keep in mind, if just one title is a “Must Have!” you’ll get a call.  The better the titles, the more calls you’ll get.

8.  Build trust. Offer a range of FREE informational services along with your FREE booklets.  This will make people call, and put you on their radar of “helpful people to call” when they need something.

For example, FREE quotes, FREE policy review, FREE portfolio reviews, FREE drop off and pick up; FREE Seminars, FREE book, “FREE FREE FREE… just pick up the phone and call now!”  If you can’t bury the cost of giving away a free book to activate an account, you’re doing something wrong.  

9. Track lead generation strategies back to the source.  Keep a count of new customers acquired through each marketing channel in your lead generation program.  Next year when you do it all again you’ll know where to start – at the highest new customer acquisition level.

10.  Keep clients for life. Simply deliver the service you said you would, at the time you said you would deliver it.  And then thank clients for their business.  Yes.  Simple as that.  So…

11. Don’t forget to send a letter thanking clients for their business a couple of times a year. They never get tired of this, and they don’t get it from companies who don’t care.  It sets your firm apart from those.

12.  Hey, did I mention books make great business gifts. Certain books. Especially the ones that show how your clients can get more business in these tough economic times. Hey, did I mention my books can show you how to get more business for yourself in these tough times?  Three of the best marketing books in the world:  “How To Market A Product for Under $500″, “Uncommon Marketing Techniques”, and “Direct Marketing Strategies”.  They’re awesome. Get them at Amazon.